Baughman to receive first WAA outreach award

A new award honoring the outreach activities of UW–Madison faculty and staff will be presented to its first recipient, journalism Professor James Baughman, on Friday, May 6, at the Memorial Union.

Baughman is department chair of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The Ken and Linda Ciriacks Alumni Outreach Excellence Award recognizes individuals who go above and beyond their job roles to support the Wisconsin Idea and the Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) by delivering a variety of programs to a primarily alumni audience.

Baughman has been a faculty member since 1979 and has written extensively on the history of the American news media and broadcasting. A very popular instructor, Baughman won a UW–Madison Distinguished Teaching Award in 2003. He has enthusiastically accepted at least seven UW–Madison Speakers Bureau engagements since 2001.

Baughman has traveled throughout Wisconsin on four WAA Founders’ Days programs, where his presentations on “media and the elections” have been hugely popular with alumni audiences. He has been involved with outreach programs such as On the Road, Day on Campus, Freshman Parents’ Weekend and lifelong learning events in cities such as Chicago. The lifelong learning program is a partnership between WAA and the Division of Continuing Studies.

“Bringing the best of UW–Madison to our alumni wherever they may live is the very ideal of the Wisconsin Idea,” says WAA’s President and CEO Paula Bonner. “We’re proud to officially recognize Professor Baughman for his incredible outreach work, and we look forward to future endeavors in this area by our faculty.”

The $2,500 award is named for Ken Ciriacks ’58, one of the most active alumni in the history of WAA. A geologist and former petroleum industry executive, Ciriacks was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2002. He was a charter member of the geology department’s Board of Visitors and is a member of the Bascom Hill Society and WAA’s Board of Directors. His generosity helped make possible the excavation and reconstruction of the Geology Museum’s 33-foot-long Edmontosaurus dinosaur skeleton.

Ken and Linda Ciriacks will present the award to Professor Baughman at the 2005 Distinguished Alumni Awards dinner on Friday, May 6, in Great Hall.